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Is every moment of our lives built into us before we're born? If it is, does that make us less responsible for the things we do? Or is the responsibility built in too? After you hit the ball, do you stand and wait to see if it goes out, or do you start running and let nature take its course?~Taken

The lack of uploads, fics, blog posts and other internet shenanigans is mostly due my health not playing along. Things haven't been very good this summer and my disability has been biting more than usual. I'm already dreading the end of my break in early November when I'll have actual real life work again. Currently, I'm marathoning old TV episodes, checking out new shows (new to me at least) and catching up with previous seasons in anticipation of the US TV season premieres in about a week's time. Thank god for the Episoder App on iPad, otherwise, I'd never be able to keep track of all the shows I watch ;-).

Speaking of TV shows, I'm still on the fence about Doctor Who. I loved the old skool episodes and watched the new ones until about three years in, at which point, I sort of lost interest. I didn't dislike the new ones, I even wrote a few completed fics and plenty of unfinished fics, but as with almost all shows, my interest tends to come and go. I watch a show for a while, then stop. There are a few shows that I tend to come back to over and over like Stargate (SG-1 and SGA) and the original CSI, but most shows I only watch for a while, even though their run might be much longer. I still haven't gotten past season 3 of House for example, save for the odd later episode.

Fic writing is definitely on ice right now, although I had a wave of inspiration the other day when I couldn't sleep. Problem is I couldn't find my outline and had already forgotten most of the intricacies of that plot of that particular story. Well, it will turn up again, provided I actually wrote it (I'm not so sure anymore) and wasn't just outlining it in my head.

I did get some exciting reading material in the post yesterday - all 3 volumes of The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes. I already browsed through some of the stories yesterday and it's fascinating.

but I have more or less shifted my focus to my other livejournal at hexicode. It contains mostly fannish stuff (although I woefully fail at actually posting fic there) and info relating to my various online activities. So if you want to know what I have been up to, check it out sometime :-) I don't post very often, but I do update there. I will keep this journal around, not least because its a permanent account, and I'll probably also post the occasional update.

In other news, I'm currently on break from uni and have taken on a private editing/proof-reading gig. My marks for the last academic year came out earlier this month and while I'm not completely happy, they aren't a disaster by any means. One 'pass' and one 'pass with merit'. I was hoping for two 'pass with merit', but one can't have everything. Not that it'll matter in the bigger scheme of things: depending on the type of work, I can work maybe 2 hours a day tops, less if it involves significant interaction with other people and it's going to be near impossible to find a job accommodating that. I try not to dwell on that too much since there is nothing that I or anyone else can do about it anyway.

Bro is getting married in Hong Kong in two days' time. Sis is there right now and will stay until after the wedding. She is the only one of the family who will be there for the wedding, but we could only afford the trip for one person (Bro managed to link the trip to attending a conference, so the university where he's doing his PhD paid for his plane ticket), plus the parentals have no time off anyway.

As of today, I'm finally done with the two group projects that have been keeping me busy for weeks. All that leaves is the end-of-module assignment (EMA) and the exam, both happening in mid-to-late April. I haven't done anything for either of them yet. I cannot wait until May, when I'll finally get a break from uni. I haven't had a real break since February 2011. I feel tired and my brain's fried, so I'm taking the day off. Got way to little sleep anyway, what with the team presentation not starting until 9 p.m. for me. Stupid time zones!

Just when I thought I'd have a relatively quiet time after Christmas what with uni on break, my mother trips and as a result dislocates and breaks her thumb. She's very cranky about it all, and pissed that she can't knit with just one good hand. Understandable, but not easy to put up with. It's only been two days and the mood in the house is already quite strained. The household chores wouldn't bother me so much, it's her supervising them that is driving me up the wall. It's times like that when I think that I can't stay in the house forever without going even crazier than I already am :-/

At least Operation Declutter is going well. All of the boxes, save those under the bed are now gone and their contents sorted. Will tackle the space underneath the bed today. Aside form tons of books and VHS tapes, I'm not so sure what else is under there. With my luck, lots of spiders probably...

Anyhow, Operation Declutter is proceeding well, although it has left me exhausted. For the moment, I'm concentrating on clearing the floor of books, DVDs, clothes, boxes and everything else that is hiding it from view. I'm not finished with that yet, but the progress (and the floor) is visible. So far I've only put the obvious things in the trash, but items like books, DVDs, clothes and papers remain to be sorted. Some I will no doubt try to sell and others donate or chuck out. The shelves need to be lightened, as they are already curving under the weight piled onto them. Too many books. At some point, I'll have to decided what to do with the boxes upon boxes of video tapes (I was a TV junkie way before the advent of the DVD). The thought of throwing them out pains me, but there is nothing on them that I don't have in digital format. I don't even have a VCR anymore, so there is really no point in keeping them around. Not sure why I have this resistance to binning them.

Maybe accumulating clutter is genetic. I mean my parents have loads of clutter and so do my siblings. My grand-father kept everything including items like roof tiles. My great grandfather was an artist with loads of artist friends and accumulated tons of paintings, sculptures and busts (including one of himself, one of his wife and one of my grandmother as a gir). Every generation just accumluted stuff and passed it on to their heirs. Our house is full my great grandfather's art and other inherited items. Not that we aren't in good company. Ever since I've seen the interior of our next door neighbours house I'm no longer surprised at the amount of stuff that's sitting on the sidewalk in front of their door.

Me, I got a few pretty presents, had nice food (albeit a bit too much) and listened to some Christmassy mp3s. I also dl-ed and watched the new Sherlock Holmes movie. After being less than impressed by the previous movie, my expectations were very low to begin with. It was pretty rubbish, but had some nice h/c moments. All in all, I could have made worse use of my time.

Today, the family is visiting relatives, but I won't be going. Too many question I don't want to answer and too much food I won't be eating ;-) I did make the cakes though. I'll probably be spending the day cleaning and decluttering my room. The parentals are insistent that I need a new bed and in the room's present state the old bed cannot easily be moved out. In other words, it's a mess, but it's my mess. I know under which pile to find what. Most of the time anyway. I don't even want a new bed. My old one is a bit rickety, but perfectly fine, IMHO. The parentals however disagree and I don't have the nerve to battle this one out. I have more important things to do...LOL.

Got it a few days ago: pass with merit on that medicinal chemistry course I took earlier this year. No word yet on either one of the first assignments for the courses I'm taking now. After handing in the last bit of work due before the holidays I'm taking the day off today. I had plenty of stuff planned for today, but I'm finding myself lazing around. I did do some work on the sock that I'm loom knitting, but other than that, not much. I only get one break week for Christmas, my first official break since Easter. I have a lot of work to do before then, what with having gotten behind on some stuff while I was working on the assignments. Also, decorations! Better late than never, I figure ;-)

Less than two weeks till November which means it'll soon by time for NaNoWriMo. Normally, I enjoy a three and a half month break from most of my rl obligations starting in mid-October, but unfortunatly, this year it's all different and except maybe a break week for the holidays in December, I'll pretty busy this winter. That means less time for potential novel writing, but all the more enthusiasm for it. I could never really resist a challenge like that ;-)

So, I'm pretty sure that I'll go for it and the only question at this stage is what will I be writing come November. Planning isn't a must, I wrote my first NaNo-Novel with only a rather vague plot idea in mind, but I found over the years that it pays to have some idea where it's all going, otherwise chances are that it'll end up somewhere quite weird and not necessarily to my liking. Not that couldn't happen even with planning. It certainly has happened before. Time pressure makes for weird novels.

As always I will be writing fanfiction. I couldn't write original fiction to save my life. I have a couple of plot ideas whirling around my head for various fandom. I probably like the idea I have for a Paul Temple story most, but I'm a bit wary of writing anything set significantly (as in more than 10 years) in the past. I tried to write a Magnificent 7 story a few years back and failed spectacularily and would like to think that I've learned my lesson: do not write stories set before you were born! Even a story set a few years after I was born still gave me quite the headache as I had to figure out how the characters could effectively investigate a crime without mobile phones and DNA tests. A Paul Temple story would pose similar problems. Another idea is for a Diagnosis Murder story. There are a lot of interesting dynamics to be explored on this and it wouldn't have to be set too far in the past as to require research. However, my plot bunny for this one is a rather lame and not overly original. Well, everything has been done before in a way, especially when it comes to fanfic, but I still like to try for a bit of originality. My other ideas are either exceedingly vague or probably won't yield anywhere near 50,000 words worth of story.